


Sudden Discoveries

by orphan_account



Series: Sudden Discoveries [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blood, Gen, Hints of child abuse, Homestuck - Freeform, I don't know how else to tag this, M/M, Mystery, possibly some JohnxDave?, tw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-07 01:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/742561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave Strider and John Egbert are fully prepared to endure a "fun" week at John's favorite annual summer camp.  Everything is all fun and games until a bloody mystery is discovered deep in the camp's empty forest.  And as if this unfolding tragedy was already too much for John to handle, he shortly learns that Dave may have a few kept secrets of his own; ones that could soon turn fatal.  With Dave's lips zipped shut and John at his wit's end the two boys try their best to solve the scene of the forest, and all but give up until they meet a strange creature with skin two shades darker and raging horns bulging from his head, and offers his assistance.  Now they must turn the tables on their luck and solve the mass of chaos that was brought upon them starting the first day they stepped foot on the campgrounds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sudden Discoveries

**Author's Note:**

> Aha, well, hello. This is my first entry here at Ao3 and I'm a bit nervous for the response this story will receive, but have at it anyways.

Dave Strider examined his surroundings as they trudged along the forest trail, his expression that of a toddler lost in a mega-walmart. He was already having second thoughts of accepting John's offer to go on a group trip to the boy's favorite summer camp that happened yearly. He had not been walking through loose dirt for more than six minutes when he suddenly became tremendously homesick. The only thing keeping the boy from not puking his camp-intolerant heart out would be John, who ironically was having the time of his life out here on the trail. Dave tried his best to hide the weary face and the accidental groan that slipped out of his mouth. As far as he knew John was completely unaware of Dave's unhappy camp attitude. His bright blue eyes gleaming behind thick rimmed glasses. The shorter boy practically bounced with each step as he covered more of the trail spiraling away into the forest. He had never been more excited when he had convinced Dave to come to camp with him. John had even talked the boy's awesome older brother, 'Bro' into coming along as a camp attendant. Dave supposed the reason for John's more-happy-than-usual attitude was due to the child not not being let out much, or the fact that he had the chance to witness this 'amazing forest, campfire songs, marshmallows and ghost stories', series only once a year. 

Now that they were actually at the group's campsite (and had managed to score the same room) John wasted no time dragging Dave out into the wilderness that he was so completely in love with. He continued to grin without second thought until he heard a noise from behind him. A single groan. John's smile curved downward at the noise and he let out a small whine of his own. He knew that low groaning sound was from Dave who, upon further inspection, wasn't having nearly as much fun as the boy in blue. The boy however sprang back to life when he decided that he would just have to take this chance to excite his friend so maybe he would be ready to have fun on his own once the camp activities started. So he spun about and looked brightly at Dave. "Hey come on what's wrong? Look at all this nature!" John exclaimed with an expression like a ray of blinding sunshine.

Dave's eyebrow shot up and he trailed along in silence for a short moment after hearing his friend's ignorant question, almost as if he couldn't believe just how oblivious John could be to the fact that Dave was having the worst time of his sixteen year old life and it hadn't even been a full day of camping yet. Day one of their trip and he was ready and set to head for home. Dave responded soon after by a slight roll of the eyes behind his shades, and an apathetically sarcastic answer, "Oh there's no need to tell me. No sir, I am having no trouble seeing all this nature. In fact, nature is about all a guy can see for miles out. I am so insanely burdened that I can only see so much nature at a time, because wow, there sure is a lot and it's fuck-tastic, really."

John couldn't help but pout at his friend's reply. "You're not having fun." he stated matter-of-factly, his voice beginning to resemble the whimpering of small puppy who was promptly kicked in the side. John slowed his pace a sulked a few steps like this. He really couldn't keep up the pouting for long, though. He waited for Dave to catch up to him and then suddenly grabbed the grumpy 'cool' kid's hand before dragging him off at a much bouncier pace. "Well then we will just have to get you to have the time of your life, Dave. I won't take no for an answer!" John exclaimed, the dancing light to his excited eyes seemingly returned.

Dave groaned another time but let his friend drag him around nevertheless. "I just don't see the point in camping. I mean there's nothing to do out here, and everything is wet and muddy, and the birds are all singing the song of their people and the bugs won't stop testing my patience. I mean I understand that I'm literally the sexiest dude out here but I don't think it's asking too much that the insects lay off a little, my blood isn't _that_ great." John only giggled, not making much of a response to his friend's rhetorical statement. It wasn't until they finally reached the campsite that Dave opened his mouth again. "So we're sharing a cabin, right? Bunk-buddies or whatever?" Dave opened his mouth to ask another question, but he suddenly choked on his own words, his voice stuck in his throat, when he glanced over to see his older brother, Dirk, entering the small cabin that he would be residing in for the remainder of the week. A look of dismay crossed over his features for only a second before he shook the expression so as not to worry John or force the nosy one to start asking questions. "Why'd ya have to go and invite bro anyway…?" Dave finally managed the words out with a grudging tone.

John bounced along, dragging Dave back to the main camp and shrugging at each of Dave's questions before answering. "Yup! Bunk buddies! And I call top bunk, Dave!" John said quickly before Dave could object. The other kid simply grumbled as John rattled on. "Bro? Oh I thought it would be nice if your brother came so you wouldn't have to be away from him." He said, cheerfully clueless. "Should I not have..?" He asked after a moment's pause as though he was suddenly taking in Dave's unhappy tones

"Nah it's cool," Dave said with a shrug, knowing that this gullible kid would really think he was totally fine with having Dirk there, "I just thought it'd be legit to do something without my big bro around for a change. I'm a man now, John. I have my manly independent priorities." Dave elbowed his friend in the arm and motioned with a fast nod of his head to start for their cabin. He changed the subject rather quickly. "But come on, we gotta unpack and all that shit so you won't miss any camp activities or whatever it is you're so excited about."

"Oh yeah!" John nearly shouted, jumping as he did so. He grabbed Dave's wrist again and dragged the boy across the camp grounds to their cabin. Pulling open the door he practically manhandled Dave into the room and pushed him toward their shared bed, prompting him to start unpacking

Dave's face twitched slightly into a wince as John grabbed at his wrist and dragged him along, too busy entering the cabin to notice the grimace expression Dave had just made. "Slow down dude." Was the only wordy response he could manage at the time. Dave glanced over once more to see Dirk unpacking his own belonging and throwing his bags onto the single bed directly across from their bunk. It was bad enough that his bro was there with him at the summer camp, but then John had laid out the news that Dirk would be the assistant, or "camp counselor" to their cabin. This was horrible news to Dave, but a super fun, almost sleep-over like party for John. What John didn't know couldn't hurt him, Dave figured.

John only replied with a "But if we slow down then we won't get to do all the fun stuff, Dave!" The bouncing boy hurried around the cabin, stuffing his clothes into drawers and climbing up onto the top bunk of their bed, which he had claimed for himself, to put the blanket he had brought with him over the blanket already there. Once he was done he scrambled down the small ladder and rushed around the room somemore, stopping for only a few seconds to greet Dirk before he began helping Dave unpack his own bags, because clearly Dave wasn't doing it at the speed John wanted.

Dave ignored the utter giddy-ness of the boy and continued unpacking his own bags, making sure to be quick about it so he could get the hell out of that cabin and away from his brother's eyes. He was going a bit too quickly, however, and stumbled over his own feet and onto the ground with a loud thump. The boy landed on his stomach, making a small yelp as his body, but mostly his right arm, hit the floor. The end of his red T-shirt shrunk up a few inches in the fall, so his back was now partially exposed, and with that, showing off a few dark spots that covered the tender skin around the back of his waist.

John made a squeaking sound in surprise when Dave tumbled to the floor. He quickly stooped down to help his friend up. John reached for Dave's shades which had fallen from his face in the fall, and as he did so he happened to take notice of Dave's shirt riding up. At first the mostly clueless boy thought he was just going to get a peak of skin from the boy he was undeniably attracted to, (though he wouldn't admit it aloud), when he saw the faint bruises, some a dry brown while others were a deep purple, making them look new and old. Unconsciously John reached out and pulled up Dave's shirt to reveal even more of his friends back and the dark bruises splotching it. For once his cheery demeanor disappeared and did not return immediately. "D-Dave?" he asked, sounding suddenly very anxious. "What happened to you?"

Dave scrambled to his feet faster than his mind could really register, and snatched his shades out of John's hands with a hasty growl. "I just tripped, jeez, get over it egbert." Dave then realized what John was so shocked about. Oh. Fuck. He saw them, didn't he? Dave's eyes nervously switched over to catch a look at his brother, who was frozen in place with a look of spitefulness in his eyes, as if Dirk was testing him by whatever his answer would be. What was he thinking? Of course he was testing him. Dave brushed himself off and began his best 'cool' explanation, "John. I own a skateboard. I am a Strider for fucks sake. It's pretty normal for someone like me to have a couple bruises here or there."

John was even more shocked by Dave's outburst than the bruises themselves. He shrunk backwards to escape Dave's rath. When the boy calmed down a bit John extended from his curled position to accommodate the calmer tone. He didn't notice the look in Dirk's eyes however. John listened to Dave's explanation of the skateboard, but he didn't really buy it. Those bruises were on his back not to mention much too circular to really be from falling down off his board. It took him a moment longer to get his stance back, but when he did he looked straight at Dave. He wished he could see the other boy's red eyes, it would hopefully (he would fail of course) make him sound more serious. "Dave, you don't get bruises like that from falling off a skate board." He said as firmly as he could muster with his still slightly shaking voice

Dave opened his mouth to give another, more believable explanation, when he felt a strong hand land on his shoulder and squeeze. "God, you're bad at lying." Dirk stood beside his brother with a lazy smile stuck to his face. He turned to stare at John with a scoff, "Lil' bro here has been up to his knees in some pretty nasty sports, but he didn't wanna tell ya or else you might freak. Didn't want to worry ya either." Dave took in a sharp breath; he was going to get it real bad for forcing his brother to step in because he couldn't convince John himself. But the deal was done. Now all he could do was nod his head and hope that John took that explanation over his own.

John thought for a moment. That was a much more believable story. And judging by the bruises they could very well be caused by such nasty sports. "Well you should have told me." John of course pulled another pout as he looked at his friend. They told each other everything and he was more than slightly disappointed about this being kept from him. "And you need to be more careful!" John said with a concerned tone, "You could get seriously injured judging by those marks on your back." He huffed slightly and looked around the room. They had finished unpacking and John saw no reason for them to stay cooped up in this gloomy cabin. So he grabbed Dave's wrist with a "Come on!" and dragged the dark shaded kid out of the room and away from his brother.

Dave grimaced as his wrist was dragged again, but he quickly forgot about it as he was tugged out of the cabin and away from Dirk. He glanced back as they exited the cabin and only saw a slight glare coming from his brother. Not too bad, maybe he would live to see tomorrow. "John exactly where are we going?" Dave thought to ask as his friend continued to drag him around to the outside.

"Hmmmm" John made a noise in thought as he continued to drag Dave about by his arm. "I don't know, there's so much stuff we can do! We can go hiking and swimming and learn how to fence and draw and cook and sing and dance and…" The boy continued to ramble on and on as he dragged Dave across the camp grounds. He really couldn't decided on one thing, his mind was buzzing around in an endless circle of possibilities of the hundreds of things that they could do here with little rules about what they couldn't.

Dave suddenly realized that John, like always, knew nothing of what was going on or what to do. "Wow bro, that's a whole lot of shit to do. I don't think we can get all that done I mean it's already getting dark so-" Dave's short ramble was cut off suddenly by a sound heard in the far distance. Another noise rang through the boys ears as they both stopped in their tracks to face the direction it came from; deep in the eastern part of the woods where it was already dark. The noise startled both boys out of their wits, because it wasn't just a mere sound, it was a scream. A terrified, blood-piercing scream.

John froze at the sound. The sound that was so painful for horribly heart wrenching to hear echoed through the thick leafy greens of the distant eastern forest. John's light blue eyes had lost all of their color, his face became the same pale color. They stared lifeless and shocked at the distant sound behind dull thick rimmed, square glasses. His hands had dropped, releasing Dave and becoming clammy at his sides. He stood, lifeless, a living statue suddenly erect in the middle of a once busy path. Seconds later he was running. He was running faster than he had ever run before toward the sound. Toward the noise that caused his heart to stop and his breath to catch. Toward the bloody scream that he should have been running away from instead of towards. But he wasn't running in the opposite direction of trouble, he was running right into it. Towards the scream that could end his own life. Yet John didn't care. The small chance that he could help or save whoever had let out the mortified scream was enough for him to bolt like a mad dog into the thick forest. He couldn't even hear Dave's calls for him to come back, nor could he head the hoarse breath and pounding footsteps of his best friend when the boy followed the fleeing one. John ran for what seemed to be forever when he at last staggered into a clearing in the dense forest. What he saw made him stop cold. In the center of the clearing was a body. A body of a boy he had never met and would never get the change to. A boy about john's age and Dave's height. A boy with wide green eyes and chopped brown hair. A boy with a huge gash across his throat that pumped out thick, steamy crimson blood. A boy in a puddle of his own life.

Dave stood for a moment as his friend hurried off into the woods. He just stood there, paralyzed, completely perplexed and confused about what had just occurred. When he finally came around again he realized that John was gone. Gone and out of sight. So Dave did the only rational thing he could think of and ran in the direction the scream had come from, completely convinced that that is where John had run off to. Dave didn't know where he was going, what was going on, or what to expect once he found John and the source of the scream…but he knew it couldn't be good. Finally, an out-of-breath Dave made his way into the clearing. He saw John first. Then, as his head lifted, he saw it.

John lost it. Not in the sense that he to go out of his mind, but in the beginning there was shaking. His entire being was vibrating with pure, raw terror. His eyes were wide and locked on the dead one in front of him. He couldn't take his eyes off of it. It felt like someone had glued his feet to the ground and poured cement into his pant legs. His entire body felt heavy. He couldn't stop staring at the body on the ground. He couldn't take his eyes off of the thick stream of blood slowly creeping toward him like it was a living creature. It was like it was coming toward him, reaching for him, and John was terrified. He stopped breathing at once, and he couldn't feel his heart pounding inside his chest. He couldn't hear Dave behind him, all he could focus on was the dead form of flesh and blood in front of him.

John wasn't the only one frozen in his footsteps. The amount of terror Dave felt the moment he laid eyes on the scene made his heart do ugly flip-flops. Suddenly he remembered the importance of breathing and his heart-rate slowed down a bit. The fear soon turned into horrifying nausea, as Dave bent down and puked his bloody guts out. Dave was used to gore, and he was surely used to floods of gooey blood, but not when it was coming right out of someone besides himself or someone on tv. Especially not when the victim was a boy around John's age. A boy who was likely there as a fellow camp member, no doubt. Dave gulped and forced his heavy feet to drag forward as he whipped the access vomit from his mouth. He couldn't handle the sight from the distance he was at already, so moving closer was an idiotic move if he ever made one, but he needed to help John. The poor boy couldn't keep his eyes off of the scene in front of him. It was all Dave could do to lift his hand into the air and cover John's eyes for him. He attempted to make words, sounds, anything to get John to look away himself, but Dave was just as paralyzed as John was, and Dave made no effort to look away himself, so he just stood there, protecting his friend, as he took in the entire sight with widened cherry eyes.

When the vision disappeared from in front of Johns eyes the frozen boy turned. He crashed into Dave full force, yet it was strangely not enough to knock them over completely. He swiveled and buried his head into the crook of Dave's shoulder. He couldn't make himself move any farther, he just couldn't stare at that any longer. But when he squeezed his eyes shut against his friend's shoulder he could only see the image in his head all too clear. He didn't know if Dave was still looking, he prayed he wasn't but John couldn't help him right now. John couldn't think straight. All he could see was that lifeless boy on the ground. All he could see was the thick crimson liquid slowly pooling towards them like some animal reaching out in a silent cry for help. They needed to get away but John's entire body felt like led. He could feel the blood moving towards them. It almost felt to John like it was climbing up his pant legs and staining his skin with the image he would never rid himself of. The boy was breathing again at least, in thick ragged gulps that matched the beat of his shaking body. Steps were running towards them now; hoards of people who had heard the scream as well. They were finally catching up to the boys that stood clinging to one another. One staring straight at the lifeless lump of death on the ground and the other shaking and silently crying his soul out into his best friend's shoulder.

Dave barely felt any movement when John slammed into him. He barely felt John cling to his arm and bury his face into Dave's chest. He managed to feel the hot tears soaking his shirt and he heard the ragged breathes of his friend. But still he could not look away. He couldn't pull himself away from the scene. He heard footsteps running towards the opening in the forest. He had to stop them. He couldn't let anyone else see this. He lifted a shaky hand in front of him, as if to shield his own eyes or to guide himself away from the body, but it was no use. And then the worst happened. The one thing Dave never would have expected. _They_ returned. At the worst of times those people returned. Those THINGS. _**"Hello?" "Look at all that blood" "It's oozing from him look at the bastard." "HE IS DEAD HAHAHAHHAAH" "Stupid boy" "Did you kill him?" "YOU KILLED HIM!" "Worthless trash." "They're watching they saw you do it." "YOU MURDERER!" "Stupid ignorant boy."**_ The voices returned.

A single counselor stumbled in on the two boys. The rest had rounded up all the children running towards the area and forced them back into their cabins. Only John and Dave laid eyes on the dead body. The adult that found them gasped at the sight of the dead body on the ground and hurried toward the two boys. Any sound that the person made glided right past John. He didn't hear it and he didn't register it. Only when the man tried to pull him away from Dave to hurry them away from the scene did he notice. John made a loud displeased sound and clung harder to Dave. He couldn't let go of Dave. He couldn't lose him. Not now. Now he needed Dave more than he ever had before. John didn't know what was going on in Dave's mind. All he could feel was the light dizzyness that was slowly growing more and more apparent as he went from slight panic to full on hyperventilation.

Dave was actually pretty okay with being led away by the camp counselor, it was the extra push that he needed to get his mind functioning again. When he noticed John beginning to hyperventilate he quickly sprang into action, his mind going at full speed even with those mindless words still crawling through his brain. "Shit, he's having a panic attack again." Dave saw in the counselor's eyes that the guy was a rooky who knew absolutely nothing about panic attacks or what he should do in a situation like this. In fact the guy seemed like he was going to hyperventilate himself if they didn't get out of there soon. "I've got an inhaler in my bag back at the cabin, help me get him there." That was all Dave needed to say for the counselor to understand and lift John, barely holding onto breath, into his arms so they might run faster.

John only freaked more when he was lifted up from the ground. Of course he knew in some part of his mind that they were attempting to get him help and make it so he could breathe again, but he didn't want to be off the ground, he wanted to be with Dave! He felt safer there, and didn't like being off the ground or away from his friend in the least. He barely registered where they were going as they ran through the forest and crashed into the cabin that they were sharing with Dirk, who thankfully wasn't there at the moment. The counselor set John on the bed and had to support him so he wouldn't topple over onto his side, or worse fall forward onto the floor. All John could see was the body and the animalist blood crawling across the ground toward him. He could still feel it climbing up his body and soaking his clothes. Dave had to get his inhaler and put it in Johns mouth. The first puff made the panicked blue eyes dilate. John gained a tiny bit of control after that, raising his own hands and putting them over Dave's to give himself the second puff. Slowly his pupils relaxed and the feeling of the blood soaked clothes and skin fell away. His breathing began to relax and slowly become regular again, but his heart still pounded violently in his chest.

Dave felt relief wash over him when he saw John beginning to relax. Thank God that he had the cursed disease of asthma, and at that had brought his inhaler with him just in case, or else John really might have passed out from breathlessness and exhaustion. Even though he knew John could hold the device himself now, he kept his hand there, underneath of John's own. Any second thoughts on the matter were swept away immediately as John clutched his other hand on top of Dave's as a means of comfort. Damn that kid, making him worry like that. "You okay bro..?" Dave thought to ask once he decided John was calm enough to speak.

Y-Yeah..." A half mumbled, shaky reply came out of Johns mouth. He still sounded pretty breathless but his violent shaking had dropped to a much more manageable shivering. Of course John was exhausted now. His panic attacks did that to him. Simply drained all of the energy out of the happy boy and made him a shell of lost tiredness. He attempted to speak again, trying to ask Dave if he was okay. Trying to ask what had happened, how it had happened and what had done it. He had endless questions but he didn't nearly have the energy to ask them all. Instead he chose one. The question that he thought was of the most importance at the moment. "A-Are you okay?" He managed to get out around his still clattering teeth.

Dave didn't respond right away. He was still pretty caught up in the moment of the scene they both had just witnessed. But at least the voices had vanished by now. "Y-Yeah, I'm cool." He lied through his teeth. "But don't worry about me dude. I think you should maybe just take it easy for the rest of the night. Y'know, take a nap or something. There will still be plenty to do tomorrow." By now Dave had shooed the counselor out of the room—which took a huge amount of time and persuasion, by the way, but he was gone now nevertheless. He probably took off to help the others figure out exactly what had occurred in the forest. It was a pretty rational guess. "I dunno dude I'd just strip into some pjs and call it a night if I were you." Dave looked down at his wrist now, peering at the small clock hooked around it and noticing that the time was already getting to be half past seven.

John nodded slowly. He stood, shakily and made his way to the drawer he had put his clothing in. He barely even cared that Dave was in the room with him as he stripped down to his boxers and pulled on pants and a clean shirt. He felt better once he had changed, like he had gotten rid of the blood that soaked his clothing. Once he was changed he stuffed the dirty clothes back into the drawer, and it took all of his energy to push it closed. Slowly he moved back to the bed, and crawled onto the bottom bunk. He had made quite a big deal about wanting to sleep on top when they first arrived, but now he had no energy to climb or to argue with Dave. He didn't even bother to pull back the covers, and just curled up in the corner of Dave's bunk.

Dave didn't really care that John didn't really care that he was stripping in front of him. It was a guy thing, it was actually pretty normal for John, but Dave had never just blatantly stared while the guy got naked. He also never stripped himself if anyone was around, that was John's thing, Dave would have none of it. But seeing as John was turned over already and probably either dead or asleep, Dave took the chance to shove himself onto his feet and change into something more comfortable. Even though it was only seven the two boys had definitely had enough of that day and only wanted it to be morning already. Dave snatched a random pair of pants and a looser T-shirt from his own dresser. He began shrugging off his shirt, leaving the entire upper part of his body exposed to the frigid air. Next came his pants, which fell down and were kicked off faster than the shirt. Now only his boxers remained, and he sure as hell wasn't taking those off, even though he was quite certain that John was too out-of-it to even notice the fact that Dave was near naked. Dave couldn't really take a chance at that, he was risking his secret being blown even now. "Thank God you're asleep, Egbert." He mumbled in a hushed tone that his ears alone could hear.

John however had gotten uncomfortable and silently shifted on the bed. He squirmed around, fighting his way under Dave's huge fluffy blanket so only his eyes and spiky hair poked out of the top. He had been fully ready to close his eyes and drift off while waiting for Dave to join him, and Dave was going to join him or he would have hell to pay in the morning, when he saw Dave in his boxers. It wasn't really the fact of his crush standing almost entirely naked in the room that gripped John's attention so suddenly. It was the dark splotches and half healed cuts that covered his friend's body. John discovered that the bruises on his friend's back were barely nothing compared to how many he saw now. No sport could do that to a kid. A coach would flip if they found out one of their players had been beaten up that bad. No, he had been lied to, and he would defiantly have to take Dave into questioning when he had more energy than a sack of uncooked potatoes. Dave got dressed, slowly from his own tiredness, and turned with sickening shock in his expression to see John, his blue eyes open wide and staring straight at him. John caught Dave's eyes and stared right back. The boy grew alarmed sucked in a thin breath as he came to a threateningly terrifying realization.


End file.
